This application relates to floor mats, and in particular to floor mats for motor vehicles, including but not limited to freight trucks, light trucks, vans, busses, sports utility vehicles, and passenger cars.
Floor mats are widely used in various motor vehicles for various purposes. For example, the floor mats can provide aesthetic appearance, comfort for the driver and other occupants, protection of the vehicle floors from wear, stains and debris, or a non-slippery surface for the occupants. Conventional floor mats tend to move around in absence of a restraining mechanism. Such movement is undesirable in part because the motion exposes the floor areas to be protected and may cause the floor mat to fold up to restrict free movement of a foot of an occupant. In the driver area, the movement of the floor mat may interfere with operations of certain control pedals of the motor vehicle and thus cause safety concerns.
Therefore, there is a need for a mechanism to securely hold the floor mats in place.
This application includes techniques and floor mat designs for holding floor mats in position in a motor vehicle without having openings in the main mat area. A protruded part or a peripheral portion of a floor mat can be engaged to the door sill for holding the floor mat.
In one implementation, such a floor mat has a main mat area having a central mat area and a border enclosing the central mat area. The border has a height higher than a base surface of the central mat area. In particular, at least one flange is formed to a portion of the border to protrude outside the main mat. This flange is used for engaging to a restraint object in the motor vehicle to restrain the main mat area from moving. The restrain object may be the door sill of the vehicle which is used to press against and hold the flange. In another example, the flange may have a through hole for receiving a fastening piece which is engaged to the floor to hold the floor mat in position. The floor mat may have an integral structure formed of a suitable floor mat material in which the central mat area, the border, and the flange are structural features of a unibody design.
A method for holding a floor mat to a floor of a motor vehicle is disclosed to include formation of at least one flange outside a border of a floor mat, wherein said border encloses a central mat area with a height above the central mat area, and engagement of the flange to a selected portion of the motor vehicle such as the door sill a fastening bolt engaged to the floor (e.g., a seat holding bracket) to hold the floor mat in position.